Vancouver Stealth to honour former captain before hosting Saskatchewan Rush

Unfortunately for the professional lacrosse squad that calls the Langley Events Centre home, the Stealth have been on the receiving end of most of them.

The Stealth dropped to 1-7 following Saturday’s 11-9 loss to the host Saskatchewan Rush last Saturday in Saskatoon.

The teams meet again this Saturday (Feb. 10) at the Langley Events Centre as the Stealth seek their second win of the National Lacrosse League campaign.

Ahead of the game, the Stealth will host a pre-game ceremony to honor long-time captain Curtis Hodgson and retire his No. 6 jersey, marking the first time the Stealth will retire a player’s jersey.

Hodgson played in 211 National Lacrosse League regular season games over 13 seasons, all with the Stealth. He only missed five games over that span and served as captain for the past four seasons before announcing his retirement in the fall.

Saturday’s game has a 7 p.m. start time.

“We are going to repeat our preparation heading into the next game, but we obviously need to be better, we are going to be at home, we will get some veteran players back in the line up and we will be ready to go,” said Stealth head coach and assistant general manager Jamie Batley. “Looking to next week, we are excited to celebrate Curtis Hodgson. He was a great captain, he was a calming force on defence and from my perspective as a coach, he deserves to be honored.”

This past Saturday night, the Vancouver Stealth’s focus was to start the game off quicker.

Facing a team that played the evening before, the stage was set for an early onslaught from Vancouver.

But the Rush had other plans. Saskatchewan opened the scoring nearly five minutes into the first frame and continued to a 4-0 lead early in the second before Vancouver got on the board.

Rhys Duch, Logan Schuss and Joel McCready combined for the Stealth’s only three goals in the first 30 minutes of the game, while Saskatchewan tallied 7.

“I think the team who plays back-to-backs tend to be more aware of getting on and off the floor and Saskatchewan did that tonight,” said Stealth defender Peter McFetridge. “They scored a couple of buzzer beaters which is tough, we have a team goal of not being scored on in the final minute but at the end of the day, they got a couple of goals.”

The Stealth rushed into the third with markers from Joel McCready, Brandon Goodwin, Tony Malcom and Logan Schuss added three to bring the game to a 10-9 deficit after the third quarter.

Saskatchewan scored the only goal of the fourth to help the Rush to an 11-9 victory.

Tickets to Vancouver’s next home game versus the Rush are still available, as well as single game tickets, three- and- five-game Flex Packs and Boston Pizza Packs, which feature four tickets, one large pizza, four soft drinks and a cactus cut appetizer for $99 at all local Boston Pizzas.

The Stealth are also offering Group Promotions for 10 or more tickets at a discounted rate. Stay up-to-date with all breaking news and ticketing information by visiting StealthLAX.com